the sounds of home

So I finally got both of my kids down for naps this afternoon and I'm sitting on the couch listening to the sounds of our home. It's a rather interesting list so I thought I'd share it with you. First, there is the constant construction going on for the building behind us, which by now is directly outside our back window. When we moved in, the building was several stories shorter than it is now, but it has grown considerably and now there are workmen directly outside my balcony less than 100 feet from my spot on the couch. We're thinking we should really get some curtains.
However, that is a dull, minor annoyance compared to the second sound I'm listening to, which is the renovation going on inside our building. Because of the concrete construction of the place, the echoes make it darn near impossible to tell where the sound is coming from: above, below, next door...I have no idea. But if I didn't know any better I'd say it was coming from our own bathroom. Or inside my skull. Either way gives you an idea of the decibel level of the drilling.
Another sound I've listened to this morning is a neighbor (I believe he lives above us...again, the sounds here are deceiving) who has intermittently been dropping marbles on the floor and suffering from allergies in the form of massive, heart-attack style sneezing. I'm not kidding, it sounds like he's doing martial arts, complete with "HI-YA!" vocal exercises, except they are accompanied by violent bursts of air from the nose and throat that let you know his threatening outbursts are simply nasal and not intended to be violent.
How do my children manage to sleep through this cacophany, this symphony of discordant sound, you ask? Not well, I would say. Not well at all.